Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade
Gender, Race, and Politics

'Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade unravels a remarkably complex set of issues to reveal unexpected motivations, alliances, and outcomes of a movement that involves far more than sex for sale. Carrie N. Baker brilliantly demonstrates how anxieties about immigration, urbanization, and changing gender roles fuel narratives of victimization that perform the ideological work necessary for gender and racial formation. They culminate in laws that heighten policing of women's sexuality, strengthen a criminal justice system that disproportionately incarcerates poor people of color, and legitimizes repressive state practices of immigration control.' Mary Hawkesworth, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University, New Jersey

'In this important and illuminating study, Baker not only documents the rise of the movement that transformed the meaning and legal standing of child prostitution, she provides brilliant insight into the ideological diversity and complex inner workings of race, gender and sexuality that drive it.' Paula J. Giddings, E. A. Woodson Professor, Emerita, Smith College, Massachusetts

'Carrie N. Baker's painstaking and insightful analysis is a must-read for scholars and practitioners concerned with the politics and processes of the sex trafficking of children in America. This is a huge, yet shamefully understudied, underreported, and unfathomable practice. Baker's work brings the scope of the problem to the fore through the lens of social movement theory. Her work provides us with a timely and brilliant, yet disturbing, description of child sex trafficking while suggesting useful strategies to begin to attack this insidious problem too long left unacknowledged by lawmakers.' Karen O'Connor, Jonathan N. Helfat Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Founder, Women and Politics Institute, American University, Washington, DC

'Through detailed analyses of court cases and development of both responding agencies and government policies, Baker examines the prevalence of common youth sex trade narratives (which primarily focus on white, middle class women) versus the lived realities of youth involved in the US sex trade (varying across race, social class, gender, and sexual identity) … This book could be used in the disciplines of history, sociology, political science, education, and media studies. It could be paired with one or more of the documentaries described in the book to help students better understand first-hand experiences of affected youth and the agendas of the developers of each documentary. … Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates and above.' C. L. Lalonde, Choice

'Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade's strength lies in its rich historical trace of the social movements regarding the child sex trade. The text accomplishes its goal of understanding the various social movements, the activists involved, and how policy was created as a result of activism.' Summer Shuford, Journal of Youth and Adolescence